The Effects of the 2016 Delimitation Exercise on the State of Penang
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The Effects of the 2016 Delimitation Exercise on the State of Penang By WONG Chin Huat, PhD (Essex), Yeong Pey Jung, Nidhal Mujahid and Ooi Kok Hin October 13, 2016 Acknowledgement This report benefits from data collection, data entry, data analysis, mapping, ideas and passion from all who have worked relentlessly for equal and representative delimitation Especially The Delineation Action and Research Team (DART) built and supported by The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0 (Bersih 2.0) and ENGAGE Penang Institute In particular, Evelyn Teh, Nur Fitriah, Ong Siou Woon and Zairil Khir Johari, Executive Director and Member of Parliament for Bukit Bendera and Yap Soo Huey, State Assemblyperson for Pulau Tikus Disclaimer The analysis is done in good faith based on the best available data. LIST OF CONTENTS 1 The Why and How of Delimitation Exercises 1 1.1 The Normative Purposes of Delimitation Exercises 1 1.2 Constitutional Provisions for Delimitation Exercises 2 1.2.1 Principal Provisions 2 1.2.2 Redelimitation Process under the Thirteenth Schedule 4 1.2.3 The Four Principles informing the Delimitation Exercises 6 2 The Delimitation Notice for the States of Malaya and the Recommendation for the State of Penang published On September 15, 2016 10 2.1 Information Given 10 2.2 Comparison to the Information Expected to Be Given to the Parliament 14 2.3 Information on the “Effect” of the EC Recommendations 17 3 Intra-state Malapportionment of Constituencies in Penang 20 3.1 Parliamentary Constituencies 20 3.2 State Constituencies 26 4 Failure in the “Maintenance of Local Ties” for Constituencies In Penang 32 4.1 Constituencies spanning across multiple local authorities 32 4.2 Arbitrary combination of local communities without common interests 36 4.2.1 N34 Paya Terubong 36 4.2.2 N24 Kebun Bunga 37 4.2.3 N14 Machang Bubuk 38 4.3 Partitioning of Local Communities or Neighbourhoods 49 5 Overall Assessment 49 5.1 Procedural Defects 49 5.2 Substantial Defects 49 6 Bibliography List of Tables Table 1 The EC’s Malapportionment Guidelines by Electorate Size and Geographical Area in 2003 and 2005 7 Table 2 The Proposed Parliamentary Constituencies in Penang and Their Electorate Sizes 20 Table 3 The Proposed State Constituencies in Penang and Their Electorate Sizes 26 Table 4 List of Parliamentary and State Constituencies Spanning Across Local Authority Jurisdictions 32 Table 5 Malapportionment of Parliamentary and State Constituencies in Penang 50 List of Charts Chart 1 Malapportionment of Proposed Parliamentary Constituencies in Penang (September 2016) 21 Chart 2 Malapportionment of Proposed Parliamentary Constituencies in Penang, as Deviation from Average (September 2016) 22 Chart 3 Malapportionment of Parliamentary Constituencies in Penang, as Deviation from Average (May 2013) 23 Chart 4 Malapportionment of Parliamentary Constituencies in Penang, as Deviation from Average (May 2003) 24 Chart 5 Malapportionment of Proposed State Constituencies in Penang (September 2016) 27 Chart 6 Malapportionment of Proposed State Constituencies in Penang, as Deviation from Average (September 2016) 28 Chart 7 Malapportionment of State Constituencies in Penang, as Deviation from Average (May 2013) 29 Chart 8 Malapportionment of State Constituencies in Penang, as Deviation from Average (May 2003) 30 List of Illustrations Illustration 1 The Redelimitation Process as per Sections 4-12 of the Thirteenth Schedule, Federal Constitution 5 Illustration 2 Information of Constituency Electorate Given in the Delimitation Notice (page 33) 11 Illustration 3 Information of Constituency Electorate Given in the Recommendations for Penang (page 8) 12 Illustration 4 A Sample of Constituency Landmass Information Provided by the EC Report on the 2015 Sarawak Delimitation Exercise Submitted to the Parliament. 15 List of Maps Map 1 The Electoral Map of Penang (in reduced resolution) 13 Map 2 A Sample of Constituency-Level Map Provided in the EC Report on the 2015 Sarawak Delimitation Exercise Submitted to the Parliament 16 Map 3 Identified and Suspected Boundary Changes in Penang Circled After Overlaying New Proposed Boundaries on the Electoral Map in 2013 18 Map 4 A Sample of Constituency Electoral Map Used During Elections 19 Map 5 Proposed Electorate Size and Area for Most Under-sized and Over-sized Parliamentary Constituencies in Penang 25 Map 6 Proposed Electorate Size and Area for Most Under-sized and Over-sized State Constituencies in Penang 31 Map 7 State Constituencies That Span Across Two Administrative Districts in Penang 33 Map 8 N18 Bukit Tambun: One State Constituency Spanning across Two Administrative Districts 34 Map 9 N36 Pantai Jerejak Crossing Administrative District Boundary 35 Map 10 N39 Pulau Betong Crossing Administrative District Boundary 35 Map 11 Arbitrary Grouping of Three Distinct and Distant Communities in N34 Paya Terubong 36 Map 12 Arbitrary Grouping of Distinct and Distant Communities in N24 Kebun Bunga 37 Map 13 Arbitrary Grouping of Communities in N14 Machang Bubuk 38 Map 14 Suspected partition of local community in N01 Penaga, N02 Bertam and N03 Pinang Tunggal 39 Map 15 Suspected partition of local community in N03 Pinang Tunggal, N04 Permatang Berangan and N05 Sungai Dua 40 Map 16 Suspected partition of local community in N02 Bertam and N05 Sungai Dua 40 Map 17 Suspected partition of local community in N06 Telok Ayer Tawar, N07 Sungai Puyu and N08 Bagan Jermal 41 Map 18 Suspected partition of local community in N10 Seberang Jaya, N16 Perai and N17 Bukit Tengah 41 Map 19 Suspected partition of local community in N11 Permatang Pasir, N12 Penanti, N13 Berapit, and N14 Machang Bubuk 42 Map 20 Suspected partition of local community in N11 Permatang Pasir, N12 Penanti, N13 Berapit, N14 Machang Bubuk and N18 Padang Lalang 42 Map 21 Suspected partition of local community in Bukit Tambun, N19 Jawi and N20 Sungai Bakap 43 Map 22 Suspected partition of local community in N22 Tanjung Bunga, N24 Kebun Bunga and N25 Pulau Tikus 43 Map 23 Suspected partition of local community in N24 Kebun Bunga and N25 Pulau Tikus 44 Map 24 Suspected partition of local community in N23 Air Putih, N24 Kebun Bunga, N33 Air Itam and N34 Paya Terubong 44 Map 25 Suspected partition of local community in N26 Padang Kota, N27 Pengkalan Kota, N28 Komtar and N29 Dato Keramat 45 Map 26 Suspected partition of local community in N29 Datok Keramat, N30 Sungai Pinang and N31 Batu Lancang 45 Map 27 Suspected partition of local community in N32 Seri Delima and N35 Batu Uban 46 Map 28 Suspected partition of local community in N34 Paya Terubong and N35 Batu Uban (North) 46 Map 29 Suspected partition of local community in N34 Paya Terubong and N35 Batu Uban (South) 47 Map 30 Suspected partition of local community in N35 Batu Uban and N36 Pantai Jerejak 47 Map 31 Suspected partition of local community in N37 Batu Maung and N38 Bayan Lepas 48 Map 32 Suspected partition of local community in N39 Pulau Betong and N40 Telok Bahang 48 Penang Delimitation Analysis by Penang Institute 1 The Why and How of Delimitation Exercises 1.1 The Normative Purposes of Delimitation Exercises Delimitation of a political unit – a country, a state or a municipality – into electoral constituencies is necessary for democracies with constituency-based electoral systems like the “Single-Member Plurality” (commonly known as “First-Past-The-Post”, FPTP) system in Malaysia. As FPTP elections elect only one winner in each constituency and deny losers any representation even if they lose only by 1 vote, how the constituency boundaries are drawn has far-reaching implications on electoral context and election outcomes. As equality of citizens is core to democracy, the over-arching principle in delimitation is “one person, one vote, one value”. This principle has two operational meanings. First, delimitation should aim for “equal apportionment of geographical constituencies”, which means the electorate size of every geographical constituency should be equal so that the ballot value of each voter can be equal across geographical areas. The opposite malpractice is called “malapportionment”. A well-known example of excessive malapportionment in the 2013 General Election in Malaysia is the stark disparity between the parliamentary constituency of Kapar (144,159 voters) and the parliamentary constituency of Putrajaya (15,791 voters). However, as a Federal Territory and like Labuan, Putrajaya is actually a state-level unit and must have a parliamentary seat no matter how small its electorate. The real problematic cases are the inter-state and intra-state malapportionment between and within the 13 states and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. Second, delimitation should aim to avoid “vote-seat disproportionality across parties” so that the ballot value of each voter can be equal across political parties. For example, in the 2013 General Election, Barisan Nasional (BN) won 60% of parliamentary seats with mere 47% of votes while Pakatan Harapan (PR) won only 40% of parliamentary seats with 60% of votes. Mathematically, this means a vote for BN is worth 1.8 times a vote for PR. Other than malapportionment, the other main cause of such vote-seat disproportionality is gerrymandering 1 , the deliberate manipulation of electorate composition by drawing constituency boundaries that are not representative but will advantage some contestants over others. Whereas malapportionment can be identified by objectively calculating the average electoral size within the political unit and the deviation from average of each individual constituency, gerrymandering is much more subjective, as there can be competing arguments for what would constitute the most representative or natural boundaries. Nevertheless, as the logic of representative democracy is to have representatives of different sub-groups in the citizenry to debate and deliberate in a common forum, political constituencies must therefore consist of people with common interests rather than strangers with little commonalities. Common 1 The term “gerrymander” was coined in the United States in the 19th century after the then Governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, who created an odd-shaped constituency that looked like a salamander.